Won't Miss #30 - Japanese cheese (reflection)

The type of food you enjoy is entirely a subjective matter. Whether we want to believe it or not, most of us like what we are used to. Though the human brain is designed to desire certain types of things more than others, namely, sweet, fatty, and salty food, the degree to which we like these things is governed by experience rather than any sort of objective measure. Whether you like subtle sweetness or blast in your mouth sweetness is a matter of experience and biology. Americans aren't born congenitally desirous of Twinkies. They learn to like them. In general, you like what you like because it's what you've had before. 

From an evolutionary viewpoint, this makes perfect sense. If you've been eating something for years and you haven't been poisoned by it for died of  a lack nourishment, then it's good to seek out that same experience. Familiarity breeds fondness because it encourages survival. These are the reasons why I get irritated at the opinion that one type of cuisine is "superior" to another. Most of us didn't choose our tastes, they were foisted upon us by culture. Sure, we can alter them if we have the will and desire to do so, but the biochemical cards aren't encouraging us to do so.

All of that being said, from my totally subjective and ethnocentric viewpoint, Japanese cheese remains a major failure in most respects. With the exception of the little wheels of Camembert that you can pick up nearly anywhere (including convenience stores), the overwhelming majority is plastic- or foil-wrapped slices of processed cheese. I absolutely continue to be grateful that I don't have to deal with the limited options for cheese that I had in Japan.

Won't Miss #30 - Japanese cheese

There are two kinds of Japanese cheese. There is the real and the very expensive sort sold in tiny packages for insane prices, and there is processed cheese. Processed cheese, far and away, dominates the marketplace and real cheese is generally available only as cheddar, Gouda or mozzarella. For every dainty pack of real cheddar, there are at least 3 types of plastic-wrapped slices. The processed cheese isn't bad, but it isn't great.

I won't miss the sea of processed cheese and limited varieties and great expense of real cheese.